Splinter Cell Blacklist feels like the kind of game where the team that worked on it really knew the franchise and really understood what elements of each game people loved and hated.

Conviction, to me, felt more like an action game than a stealth game. Chaos Theory is one of my favourite stealth games.

Blacklist takes all of my favourite elements from the older Splinter Cell games and gives them a facelift and includes some newer elements that Conviction introduced and refines them to be less overpowered but just as satisfying in action situations.The game encourages you to use the classic stealth techniques with the playstyle system but also allows you to fall back on the execute ability that Conviction introduces as a contingency (which makes you feel pretty badass when you pull off a preemptive execution on three or more guys after being spotted and managing to stay undetected).

OK... given my playtime now, I think it's finally time for my review. No plot spoilers. A proper review would take a look at all aspects, but I don't have much time so I'll be brief.

The Good - Singleplayer

The game itself is surprisingly good. Of course... it's no Chaos Theory, but regardless, the game is actually fun. By playing on perfectionist, the game's hardest difficulty, you'll find yourself hiding and waiting a lot; examining the guards' patrol routes (which by the way change every few deaths to keep you on your toes). Also you won't be able to use your vision through walls, giving (albeit briefly) you that similar experience in Chaos Theory when you find yourself constantly wondering what's around the corner.

So what else is there? A diverse array of gadgets, guns and accompanying upgrades for starters. I loved being able to use the money earned from missions to upgrades and improve my loadouts. There was a chain of progression, and I could feel my character becoming a 'stronger' spy, equipped with more stuff as the game continued.

The environments are pretty damn awesome. Exploration is the key to achieving your preferred playstyle. There are neat cinematic scenes and unique parts of the story which require you to play out these almost 'mini-game'-like bits; but they're so well integrated into the story and allows you to take a break from all the running, jumping and stabbing.

The Good - Multiplayer - Coop/SvM

Now let's switch over to the multiplayer. There's not much to say about coop. It's essentially singleplayer but with a partner. There is a fairly wide variety of missions to choose from. Each of the main characters have varying game modes depending on what you're up for. Nearly all of them can be played solo if you don't have anyone to trust your life with.

Grab a mic, join your friend, and off you go. That's right. A mic. Whilst not completely essential- it will drastically reduce the number of times you die because of silly mistakes. Bouncing information between you and your partner will really help. But... if you're with a random person you might not be able to do that. In which case, you'll just have to grit your teeth and go with the flow.

Spies. Versus. Mercs. It's fun. Believe it or not, it's actually fun. With friends. By yourself... yeah, I'll admit, you can have some pretty decent matches. But seriously, for some laughs and a better chance at winning- play with friends you can talk to. Skype, TeamSpeak- it's all about information exchange. You can better anticipate that ambush if your buddy just saw a spy heading your way. You can let your friends know where the hacker is by utilising the merc cameras whilst your dead.

The SVM loadouts are different to the singleplayer loadouts, so be prepared to start paying up the big bucks again. This time you'll also need SVM tokens, which allow you to purchase weapons and stuff. You only get a few when you start levelling up and then one token each level after that, so spend wisely. There should be enough to unlock everything, but it's the order you choose that matters. I'll be writing or recording an updated SVM tutorial sometime in the future, to help the new players with how everything works. You'll have fun creating custom loadouts with a combination of gadgets, gear and weapons to your liking and playstyle. The torso abilities are pretty cool. Each side (mercs, spies) get three choices of abilities to aid your plight. Used wisely, you can be a valuable asset to your team.

Since Blacklist is 4 vs 4, it's the perfect number. Every player counts, and when your team mates goes down, you best be prepared for what happens next.

On the face of it though, SVM is fun to dive into for a quick match (I say quick match, it's about 25 - 30 minutes per match). You can just join and start playing straight away. It's fast paced and will require some level of awareness and reflex reactions in order for you to survive. Playing smart is a key skill. Anticipating enemies, knowing your way around the map, always paying attention to the little things that might give away the position of a spy. Classic, Blacklist and Team Deathmatch are probably the only active game modes at the moment. The others could do with a reboot, as they're fun to play... when there's enough players.

The Bad - Singleplayer

I honestly can't really fault the singleplayer. There is one thing though. It can be very easy to speedrun. Grab one of the sniper rifles and just headshoot everyone. Job done. Of course, some armored enemies require a little melee time, but with two or three shots you can drop them just as easily. It can ruin the fun, but it's completely feasible.

Oh, there's also the whole Michael Ironside thing. Yes, Fisher does appear younger. No, it won't stop you from enjoying the game. You'll get used to it. Or perhaps not. It's really up to you.

My negative points reside mostly with the game launcher rather the game itself. Ubisoft only had to go and slap Uplay on its products AGAIN. Why even bother releasing this on Steam if it was going to need Uplay anyway?! For example. I load Uplay (ugh, I know) and click 'Play' on Blacklist. It then says... 'loading Steam. Please wait for your game to load from there'. Like... wut. Then Steam launches Blacklist, then it goes BACK to Uplay and Blacklist opens up. ???

Not only the Uplay interface a pain to reach on a laptop (since it's Shift + F2 and laptop users have to press FN as well...) but it's slow as hell and actually caused me to crash Blacklist once.

Ugh.

The Bad - SVM

Here we go. I'm leaving coop out of this by the way.

Spies vs. Mercs feels like another company developed it and just slapped it onto the main game. Seriously. The sonar vision is completely different to the sonar vision in singleplayer, the way the stun crossbow works is different, there's no crouch sprint... the list goes on. When I first started playing, I got bugs. I mean... BUGS. One particularly game breaking bug was the fact that every time I went into cover and left it, I'd stand up and start sprinting around. It was hella annoying. Ubisoft put out THREE patches and none of them fixed it. It was only after I'd posted a couple ideas and experiments of the forums that someone else picked it up and fixed it. A fix, from the community ._.

If you're buying Blacklist for the SVM, wait for a deal. SVM, in its current state, is just not worth it. Overrun with hackers and the likes, SVM has become a tense community, filled with paranoid players who don't trust each other. And why should they? With Ubisoft turning their back on the game, with no dedicated servers (Host changed. Migrating match.) and no anti-cheat system, you have no idea who could be hacking, or who's just damn lucky. Tired of the hackers? Want to quit the match? Tough. Ubisoft removed the Quit Match button to 'reduce the number of unfair rage quitters'. Uhm, wut.

Seriously, all the more reason to team up with people you trust and can communicate with. You can still beat hackers, because they're dumb. They can whiz around and kill you with one bullet, but they're idiots who can still be killed with Death From Above and unexpected melees. Even hackers bleed.

The Conclusion

Conviction was fun, but Blacklist brings more to the table. With new ways to play, and new gadgets to play with, the singeplayer and coop are definitely a must. Just watch out for the SVM, it might not be what you were completely expecting.

The gameplay is centered around stealth. But you can also ignore it and just kill everybody that stands in your way. You have three styles of play: Staying undetected and sneaking by enemies, staying undetected and silently eliminating enemies, or just go into combat. - The game rewards you in all ways. There's also a lot of gadgets with different abilities as well as co-op and multiplayer modes.

Graphics and Visuals

The graphics look really good, I really don't understand the rumors that say they are outdated. Seems to be a console issue, since it was released for previous-gen consoles just as the current ones were marketed.

Story

As far as I'm concerned, the story is pretty good and lasts about 10-14 hours, depending on your playstyle. It revolves around a terrorist group launching weekly attacks on America, which they'll stop only if all the US troops return to their homes. The US government forms a counter-terrorist team with Fifth Freedom policies to stop the terrorists.Seems to be your everyday Clancy-esque thing.

Longevity

As you can see, I've clocked more than 100 hours on this majestic game, and I didn't get the chance to play multiplayer. The different styles of play, co-op, side missions and DLC keep you in the game.

Optimization

It ran fine on our medium-rig PC, only some minor FPS drops.

Summary

The game is extremely underrated, it may be different from the classic Splinter Cell games, but it is a damn great title on its own and an overwhelming upgrade from Conviction.9 splinters out of 10

I do recommend to purchase this game but only when it is on big sale and I will explain why in details.

First of all, I have to be honest - I am SC fan and I was playing the series right from the first title. And yes, I do not care about graphics - more about overall atmosphere. Though I do care about how devs supporting their product.

PROs:

The game has very good single player and if you play it right it feels like that old SC's that I loved so much - you can do the things silently or even without touching anyone (there are some counter-examples though). I have to mention "train break-in" and believe me you won't be happy with this situation if you are fully stealth player. Overall, single player is a good way to entertain yourself for another day or two but that's all. If you are the "loud guy" you can also re-play everything as panther or assault. The only question remains is why those awesome night infiltrations have gone? You encounter only several in this installment.

CO-OP. Well, it took the best features of SC Conviction co-op and executed them just perfectly - it is another great game to play with a good friend of yours for some time. The only thing I don't love is that it is way too short (I am also extremely dissapointed with that Briggs' missions never-ending bug, but let's keep it aside as it might get fixed). It's an outstanding co-op if you play it right - you have all the tools you need but if you fail to deliver you are the only one to blame.

However, the thing I was so excited about is SvM (Spies vs Mercs). This was initially introduced in Pandora Tomorrow and in next installment, Chaos Theory, it keep many gamers entertained for years. Double Agent also presented us with SvM but it was not so popular. With no SvM in Conviction I though that the series is getting worse (like many others on the market, sadly) but SvM got its place back in Blacklist. It is so much fun that you can play it for hours and hours, again and again. It is almost perfectly balanced, and, aside for some bugs, you can equally good play as a merc and spy and there is no loosy side really. You might think that one side is better than the other one at first, but as soon as you start to use your equipment properly and your skill increases - you will see that SvM is balanced nicely. I was in worldwide top 15 at the moment of writing so I do know what I am talking about. What about modes - I was so hooked by SvM Blacklist that I abolished that SvM Classic mode, which many claim not to be classic (and I agree with them). They re-introduced Deathmatch as well, which still looks weird for me, even though my beloved Chaos Theory also had one. For newcomers I recommend to try out SvM Blacklist and SvM Extraction.

Points are - if you are looking for Chaos Theory Redefined - Blacklist is a good choice as it is Chaos Theory ideas blended with some Conviction mechanics. If you are looking for exact copy of Chaos Theory or Pandora Tomorrow - you better look for an unsold copy of CT or PT at your local store - Blacklist has different focus - it is more action-driven than Chaos Theory (single-player and co-op) and more diverse in terms of SvM. Yet it has many bugs in each of the modes of game so you have to live with it. However, as I have been playing CT for years I glad I now have something else to play.

CONs:

Major technical issues - Ubisoft failed everywhere it can. Let's start:General. You have reinstalled your game? Congratulations, your saves, DLCs and friends on the list are now messed up. Everybody complains about it since the release and nothing was done here. You have high-end PC? Well, that's good for you but still you will witness FPS drops, launch failures and whatever the game can possibly present you with. Even on Official Gameplay reveal day the game crashed. ANd again, Ubisoft fails to make it work.

Single-player. There are moments when you are forced to use your weapons or whatever you don't want to as a ghost. Many missions are just not from Splinter Cell world and you have to deal with it. Ending? Well, you have to wait for someone to think of something else. After some patches Sam are likely to bash all doors he can see. Definitely an improvement.

Co-op. Short. And by this I mean extremely short. Random picture distortions, FPS drops in some locations. You can spend 2 hours passing the last Briggs' mission in ghost style just to face the never-ending bug. And what Ubisoft has done about it? They say, start over. That's all. Additionaly, you might be unable to play with your friend - you can play with randoms but not with your beloved friend who also bought this game.

Multiplayer (SvM). Ubisoft completely failed technical part here. You can see half of animation of you killing a person and then you drop dead and that person is near death. You can see Merc's reloading animation yet he completes reloading in the middle of animation and shoots you. Many complaints - nothing was done here. You will kill (and be killed) your enemies while they are already behind cover just because you started shooting early. You can sometimes see spies through cover when they stick to it. Some pieces of spy gear (takedown gloves) has absolutely no real effect - even support cannot say what it does exactly. And there are many, many more issues in SvM. Oh, one more thing..Cheating? It is allowed so you can't really distinct between really good players and cheaters unless their cheating effect is obvious.

Overall, 7.0/10. If not some major issues - the game might be perfect one. Though Ubisoft managed to fail another good title.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a very strong game that is a true sequel to Conviction. It triumphs in a well-thought out and intense story. It incorporates side missions that add to the game rather than negate from the overall experience. It has compelling characters that are likeable and does not omit their past issues. And, I praise Ubisoft for creativity in regards to the Paladin and the SMI being the main interface. I played 16 hours of Blacklist and the majority was spent in single player, which exceeded my expectations, but the multiplayer hurt my overall score of the game. Regardless, I loved this so I highly recommend this game.

Splinter Cell Blacklist combines the best elements of Conviction and its predessors into one fine package. A package that deserved more attention, because even though Splinter Cell is still popular, it didn't manage to sell enough copies.

Anyway, Blacklist lets you play as Sam Fisher (who else ?), but with an all-new voice actor this time. Michael Ironside will be sorely missed, but I have to admit the new voice of Sam did a very decent job.

The game has plenty of content, including single-player missions, co-op missions, multiplayer and even a metagame. The single-player portion can be completed in roughly 10 hours. I didn't have a chance to try the other modes just yet. The single-player missions can be played with a stealthy approach, as an action hero killing everyone you see or a mix of those two. Since this is Splinter Cell I'm thinking most of us will play this game in stealth mode and use a more action oriented approach if they're ever discovered.

The graphics look extremely well and the game is a blast to play. It also runs at a solid 60FPS, something I personally adore.

Blacklist looks like a compilation of all previous games and as a result it's, in my opinion, the best game yet, or the more complete one anyway.

I like the game, but my big complaint is that the rewards structure is kind of ♥♥♥♥ed up. Why does the game only reward you for sticking to one of the three pure styles? The game is tedious to play 100% ghost, but playing 100% panther makes it really difficult to immerse yourself as a covert military operative. I tried to do a combination of both styles (trying to stay hidden but using weapons when necessary), but the game seemed to punish me for my decision when scores were tallied at the end of each level. I guess you can ignore the scores and the game telling you that you failed to reach the designated goals as a ghost or as a panther, but for me it felt unfair to be punished for trying to play pragmatically in synch with the story.

Is this game better than Chaos Theory or Double Agent? Not quite, but it does give the splinter cell series another variance, or at least a build off of Conviction.

The first probable thing the player will note is that Michael Ironside, the original voice of Sam Fisher is no longer in the game. This is brutally apparent as the new voice actor is simply way too soft and cannot be taken seriously. What is sort of nice though, instead of walking around in a warehouse like in double agent, Sam is now on a giant airplane which is his new mobile air base. This essentially is the RPG element to the game. You may update everything from your inventory, to your suit, even to the airplane adding special GPS features or infirmary upgrades. The main map table the player is able to approach allows the player to choose single player, co-op, or multiplayer game modes.

The story revolves around terrorists in which every few days they activate a new doomsday type of scenario (poisoning water, remote explosive, etc...). The pitch here is that Sam is to prevent the doomsday before occurring. Old faces prod up such as Anna Grimsdottir and new characters also join the team. At one point in the game, you switch from Sam's 3rd person view to his partners, Isaac Briggs first person view (there is also first person view in multiplayer spies vs mercs). The story is interesting and does provide good plot points, but I can't help feel it's a little corny at times.

The game play seems like a cross breed of Conviction and Double Agent. I like the game, but it seems like sometimes you can simply rush through and shoot anyone. Not certainly a bad thing as Sam Fisher is quick to shoot, but it went from a fear of being spotted, to now simply bouncing from cover to cover. The cover system is neat and let's you plant yourself where you want to be with a simple look (using the right thumb stick) and pressing A to initiate the action. Blind fire like Gears of War is available and outlines of where enemies think you are, show up when you move to another spot. Technical aspects such as these exist in the game with the complement of Sam's gadgets such as sticky cameras or grenades. The game play it alright, and feels sort of boxy and restricting at times unlike the other Splinter Cells. Lethal and non-lethal take down options are available and hiding the bodies (or throwing them for that matter) sometimes becomes fun and easy. Throughout the game, Sam receives cold hard cash depending on his performance on the mission. This money can be used to unlock further gear, guns, or gadgets that suit you. Sam's movements are smooth, but I feel Double Agent just feels a little better than this one. I like the three combat system score they have in game. Panther (silent kills), combat, and stealth all make up your unique performance. At times, you will feel Sam can take on an entire army. Then there are times where taking on a guy with armor suddenly becomes tricky. Stealth is still here, but it isn't as authentic as it was in Chaos Theory or the first.

The sounds and graphics are good. You will hear Sam make his usual remarks throughout levels. Side commentary relevant to the game, especially when Sam's calling out there's dogs up ahead, is certainly helpful. The menu music to background music is good. When you get caught though, it isn't as suspenseful as the first SC. They tried nailing every little last piece of sweat on everyone's face. Sounds are appropriate as multiple gun types are available. It's nice to hear a silencer do it's job or an AK go off and alert everyone in the vicinity.

The only way they could have made this game better (from the rating I'm about to give it) was to add a LOCAL co-op feature. I'm not sure why everyone thinks no one plays video games together anymore, but adding that would have been an astounding addition to the game. That, and getting Michael Ironside back. He literally made Sam Fisher who he is today.

Rating : 7.8/10.

Gameplay

B+

Story / Campaign

B+

Visuals / User Interface

B+

Sounds / Music

B

Replay-ability

B+

Overall

B+

Would recommend a buy on sale, it's a good game with a lot to do, but I feel previous Splinter Cells had much more ingenuity put into them. This feels like Conviction 2.0 + DLC. It does provide, however, a lot of replay-ability. Multiplayer, co-op, and singler player should keep you occupied just enough. It would have easily hit a 8+ with local co-op.

***I should add, indeed you need uPlay, but if you take a second and set it up properly, you can run this game through steam without a problem. Again, yes, it's uPlay... but this is definitely a game worth setting it up for!

Finally played this game that I've wanted to try for a very long time. Blacklist came out 2013, and I have to say that it still looks brilliant. It was a blast to play since the game is very nice optimized. SLI supported so I played it on ultra at 1440p, 144 fps. This most have been one of the best looking games of 2013, because it's still impressive.

Personally I would really like to play this in first person. There's 2 missions where you can play first person, but the rest is in third person. I looked around for a camera option, but I found that there is none. It's only in the missions that they selected. Too bad about that, because I though that was a lot more fun.

The strong part of this game is in my opinion the story. A terror group called the engineers is threatening USA with attacks if they don't pull back their troups out of other countries. Sam Fisher and his team is trying to find the people behind it, and the cutscenes add a lot to the story. Voice-acting and lip-sync is good and help the story out. What kept me playing to the end was absolutely to see how the story ended, and I liked it.

There's a pretty cool upgrade system. You get points based on what you playstyle is. Combat, panther or ghost. Now I tried to sneak a little, but most of the time I went for combat. Since I chose the combat/panther path I upgraded my gear for that. More powerful weapons, and gear with better armor. If you wanna sneak better you can upgrade to more sneaky gear and gadgets. I really like that I got the choice and wasn't forced to play in any perticular way. Some missions are unfortunately sneak only, but it's limited. Those missions frustrated me a little, but I can look past it.

I didn't feel like the guns had that powerful feeling and the gunplay was a little dull in my opinion. Melee takedowns was cool though. I though the gunplay was much better in the few first person missions. I just wish I could choose to play that way in every mission. But that's really the only downside that I personally felt.

All in all, this is a good AAA-game that you can play in your own way. Blacklist has a nice story, that is pretty lenghty and definitely replayable, with maps that have multiple paths and bonus objectives. I rushed through it and it still took me about 10 hours, but if you want you can spend a lot more time then that. I'm personally done with blacklist after one playthrough and have no desire to go back, but im still glad I played it. I simply have a lot of other games I wanna play too, but if you are that person that like to play a game many times over, this is probably a game for you.

There is a lack of stealth games on the market, and this is one of the better ones. It runs super well, sounds good and the gameplay is fun. Sure I have some criticism on it, but it's minor things that most people won't care about. I would recommend it to everyone that like sneak games, third person shooters and games with a good story. I'm happy I played it, even though it wasn't what I expected before going in. I think people should give it a shot, on sale or even at full price. Gunplay was no more then decent in my opinion, but story, stealth, graphics and optimization made up for it.

I got this during a sale and despite playing it 4 years later after release it still a nice game if you haven't played it yet, I've played all Splinter Cell games to date, my favorite being Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

Compared to Splinter Cell: Conviction, which was too combat and narrative oriented (similar how Hitman: Absolution departed from the series, but came back closer with the latest Hitman)... this one similarly moves closer to what the series was, although not quite the same. It combines aspects from the original Splinter Cell game style and the Conviction game style. Gadgets are back, although a lot more limited compared to the old games, stealthy missions are back, the classic splinter cell black suits are back, but still retains the continuous personal narrative focus and action-oriented game style that Conviction introduced.

Compared to the older games though, it's still a bit fast paced, but generally you'll feel like Sam is a much more badass then ever before. in the old games, being discovered is generally a death sentence, aiming is hard, and there's not much hand to hand combat, this Sam Fisher can fight and shoot, just like in Conviction, but hides and disappears just as good as he was in the older games.

Despite using the very old Unreal Engine 2(It's a heavily modified version), it still looks good, the only thing that looks bad is the character faces, they look so plastic and unrealistic. The Graphics in general though still looks modern enough and could pass even as a 2017 game. I wished they at least used Unreal Engine 3 though(which is already even surpassed by Unreal Engine 4)

The game has plenty of content, aside from the main campaign missions, there's plenty of side missions from each of Sam's allies/friends, and there's also a coop and online multiplier game modes as well.

The game is not that polished. while the Animations look smooth and fluid and the executions are nice and well made, there are quite some noticeable bugs, animations does not blend well when interacting with other entities, like when using kill-moves, you'd see characters 'snapping' to each other, ragdolls and physics are a bit off, with bodies suddenly flying, guns suddenly floating in the air. This deserves a mention as this is already 4 years after release date.

Controls are also weird, it takes a while to get used to it, it's not well-designed, but it is a passable set up. I hated that they ditched Michael Ironside for a new actor, it just sounded weird. I got used to it after beating the game though, and after watching old Splinter Cell videos, hearing Michael Ironside now sounded weird.

I would say though that despite these. it's still an enjoyable experience. and would recommend getting it on a sale if you're a fan of Splinter Cell or even a newcomer of the series looking for some stealth-action games similar to Hitman or Metal Gear.